Get vaccinated. The best way to protect yourself and your family from the flu is to get an annual flu shot, and the flu vaccination is recommended for everyone 6 months and older.

"We could see more weeks of increased flu activity". Hawaii and OR reported regional flu activity; Washington, D.C., and Gaum reported local influenza; and the U.S. Virgin Islands reported sporadic activity for the week.

Health professionals are calling it the worst flu outbreak in U.S. history and the number of patients diagnosed is not slowing down.

Startling CDC statistics show 4,064 Americans died from the flu or pneumonia during the third week of the new year, while the illnesses were responsible for 1 in 10 fatalities in the first week of February.

If results continue to track with the agency's analysis of this past data, Budd believes there could be about 35 million illnesses this season, approximately 700,000 hospitalizations and at least 56,000 deaths associated with the flu. Knowing this can change the way the flu spreads.

"And then I touched her cheek and it was cold, and I started shaking her and she wouldn't move", says Jessica Puckett through tears as she recalls the worst day of her life.

Dr. Mark Loeb, an infectious disease expert with the department of medicine at McMaster University, told CBC's The Morning Edition components of influenza A an B are in every flu vaccine. Additional strategies to prevent the flu include frequent hand washing or alcohol-based hand gels, avoiding contact with sick people, covering coughs and sneezes and staying home when ill. While that last step is important in limiting the flu's spread, she acknowledged that it can create a "difficult dilemma" for people without sick time.

The findings raise many critical questions, she said, such as what data might help clinicians distinguish between those who die and those who don't, and if there are biomarkers that might help predict disease severity.

If symptoms progressively get worse, students should take immediate steps to see a health professional, especially if they are pregnant, have chronic illness or have severe symptoms such as prolonged fever, difficulty breathing or dehydration. Consumers may have to shop around or use brand rather than generic antivirals.